Walking the longest road
by Thunderoller
Summary: (au) Following a new group of survivors, we must travel a long and hard journey to reach sanctuary, but will it be as it seems, or will it be but a farce?
1. Chapter 1, one shot, five kills

**Greetings, freaks, wierdo's, and assholes who I just know won't bother to read this part of the fic, IT'S IMPORTANT DAMMIT! Anyhow, welcome to my walking dead au fanfic, first, the info, in this fic, the infection is a little different from the standard virus, first, yes, dyeing is still the main way of a walker being born, but instead, this fic adds in the bite danger, when a walker bites a normal human, rather than infecting them with other things, they instead trigger a chain reaction that causes the infection to activate while they're still alive, quickly deteriorating the brain until the only thing left is the basic functions of survive and reproduce. Another difference, in this world it is possible for a person to be born with an immunity, similar to the survivors of the left 4 dead series, however it is even rarer, as literally no cases have been discovered in this universe. Now then, enough crap involving my insanely convoluted alternate universe, let's just start the action!**

* * *

A dimly lit street, shone upon by the morning sun, to most, this would be a pleasant sight, but in this world, it only means you survived another day in hell. Walking down said street, a duo, a man and a woman, both appearing to be barely past their teens, walked down this same street. The man looked around, a rifle slung over his back in a leather holster, his tattered jeans a clear representation of his travels, he adjusted the collar on his trench coat, as he looked around he stopped, and ushered his companion to hold steady, around him was seemingly nothing but desert, to his left, an empty expanse, the only thing dotting the landscape being the cacti and a few skeletons, the remains of some unfortunate soul that couldn't make it in this world, to his right, a sign that once read, welcome to Las Vegas, now covered in dust, with illegible graffiti written on it in what appeared to be blood, the woman spoke up as the man scanned the area, placing her hands on her hips, her own coat, worn over what appeared to be a simple blouse and a pair of jeans, the latter having been modified to have leather sewn onto them, fluttered in the light breeze, "why are we stopped?"

The man replied, "I heard something, sounded like a large group of something," just then, the sound of glass being shattered could be heard, "come on, we best see what that was."

The woman nodded and followed as her companion ran off, sidling up to a wall, they peered around a corner at what appeared to be a supermarket, surrounded by walkers, "holy…crap," the woman whispered out in a fearful tone

The man turned, "Charis," he whispered, catching the woman's attention as she adjusted her black hair, looking towards him, "toss me the .308 rounds and find somewhere to hide, you don't have a weapon and this is going to get messy," to this Charis looked at him afraid, then nodded and reached into the large pack she was carrying, throwing him a sandwich bag filled with .308 rounds, she then snuck off, the man then looked towards the horde and dumped the sandwich bag into his coat pocket, then, with his left hand, reached into the opposite coat pocket and looked at a grenade, 'good thing I saved this little beauty,' he thought, the grenade reeked of sweat, he quickly pocketed it again, sneaking up farther he saw another group, but this one appeared to be human, a group dressed in makeshift armor, some of it appearing to be made up of human flesh, 'damn, who are these guys?' he took the bandanna off his head, revealing well-trimmed, black hair, 'keep calm, Douglas, recon and recovery, then we'll see about search and destroy.'

The smallest member of the group looked to the largest, he spoke his voice carrying a light tone with a slight southern accent, "well, boss? What we gonna do?"

The other man replied, "simple," his voice was gruff and coarse, "we wait for them to die, then we finish off the walkers and loot their corpses, we'll be the only survivors if I can help it."

"sounds good boss, but what about the others?"

"Thompson and the others will meet us here within the hour, by then it'll only be corpses left."

Douglas tied the bandanna around his head, making a facemask out of it, the only thing visible over his mouth being a skull mouth from the bandanna, 'search and destroy it is,' he reached over his right shoulder, drawing the rifle from its holster, it was a long-barreled makeshift rifle, appearing to be scrounged from a broken rifle with a 2x4 as the frame, the stock was cracked from overuse, and it appeared to be a single shot only, without anything to dampen the sound it was undoubtedly a loud gun, 'as soon as I fire, those undead pricks will come running, so,' he looked at the group, which were in a vaguely linear formation at the edge of the parking lot, concealed by a row of bushes, the four of them blissfully unaware of the assassin in their midst, 'one shot, four kills,' Douglas snuck around, he took aimed, sat down he used one hand to maneuver the gun while the other arm rested on his knee, balancing the firearm, he opened the receiver and loaded a single round by hand, clicking it in, one of the men seemed to notice as his head twitched, but it was too late, Douglas pushed the earbud in his right ear in farther to further dampen the sound, 'see you in hell,' he pulled the trigger, the gunshot echoing throughout the alleyways and parking lot of the city supermarket, the bullet pierced the head of the first, before going through the next three with little resistance, lodging inside of the head of the final man, Douglas stood up, putting the gun back in its holster, 'alright, now or never,' the walkers had heard the gunshot, and were rushing towards Douglas in a horde, he pulled out the grenade, pulling the pin, he cooked the grenade before hurling it into the crowd, which quickly caught whiff of the sweaty scent of the grenade, believing it to be their prey, Douglas pushed back his trench coat, pulling a machete from his hip, '3,' he took a practice swing, '2,' he took a few steps back, lifting up one of the dead bodies he had just killed and using it as a shield, '1,' the grenade detonated sending shrapnel, limbs, and bone fragments in all directions, as Douglas stood up, dropping the now shrapnel ridden body of his enemy, he walked to the few walkers that still remained, quickly dispatching them each with swift slash through the neck, decapitating them, 'I should tell Charis it's all clear…no, these people I just saved may be dangerous, best to wait and recon the situation,' Douglas walked up to the supermarket, stepping in through one of the broken windows, he flicked the blood off his machete, he knocked on a door, when it opened a large sledgehammer slammed into the ground, nearly smashing Douglas, who responded by stepping atop the head of the hammer and placing his blade against the throat of the user, "you got half a second to apologize after I saved your ass."

The large man holding the sledgehammer handle stepped back suddenly, holding his hand's up, "I'm so sorry, I thought you were a walker!"

Douglas sighed and sheathed his machete, "whatever," he looked over the man's shoulder, seeing two more people sitting against the wall in the back of the storage closet, a man and a woman, "you three are welcome by the way, but I need to get on the road," as Douglas turned, a hand was placed on his shoulder

The man with the sledgehammer said, "hey wait, we could use someone like you to help us out, we all wanna survive, right?"

Douglas looked at the man's hand and brushed it off, "that depends, what do you want from me?"

"We all want to get to DC."

"DC, why the hell you makin' that big of a journey?"

"it's supposedly the only safe haven left in the world"

Douglas lifted an eyebrow, "alright, you have my attention, don't waste it, who the hell are you three?"

"My name is Jonah, I'm a brawler and de facto leader of my group, the woman is named Lalum, she's our medic, and the last guy is the chef, his name's Brant," after the introduction, Douglas looked at the ragtag group, Jonah was clothed in torn cargo pants, other than this he was wearing a dirty white tank-top, Lalum was dressed in a ratty dress fastened at the waist by a tight belt, underneath this was a pair of ripped black jeans, her hair was messy but could be identified as a faded ginger which had been tied back into a ponytail, and Brant was wearing a rolled up chef's uniform, stained from the many uses and clearly having been splattered with blood before, on his hip was a holster for a large kitchen knife, Jonah and Brant both wore wraps around their heads to protect themselves from the harsh desert air, making it impossible to distinguish their hair colors, each of them had a backpack on or next to them, presumably to haul their supplies and ammo. As Jonah put his pack on, he pulled out two tomahawks, "sorry about the sledge, I just grabbed the nearest heavy object that I could use as a shield, happened to be that hammer."

Douglas walked towards the door, "forget about it, and I'll go with you, but I already have a companion, so she comes too."

"Fine by us!" the three said in unison, then looked at each other strangely

Suddenly, a loud, shrill scream came from outside, "Merde, that sounded like Charis," Douglas quickly dashed out, smashing through a window and rolling as he landed, "Charis!"

Standing in front of him were a group of bandits, dressed in the same garb as the ones that he had killed earlier, "there's the little son of a bitch what killed our boys, I bet!" said one of them

The largest one turned around, holding up Charis by her wrists, "well, well, well, this piece of ass yours then? Great, makes enslaving 'er that much sweeter."

The three newcomers were watching from the window, preparing for a fight, but suddenly, they could feel a change in the air, it became tense and dangerous, Jonah asked quietly, his tomahawks at the ready, "what the hell's going on?"

When the other's shook their heads, they looked towards Douglas, and they felt their hearts skip a beat, it was as though he had this aura around him, he was undeniably pissed off, and he wasn't hiding it, "you little dickheads are gonna learn the meaning of the term, mad minute!" he shouted, drawing his machete and taking off towards the one holding Charis.

* * *

 **Ah, the cliffhanger, a grand way to end the first episode, aint it? Anyways, let me know what you think of it in a review, if you have anything you think could be done to make the story better, let me know, but please do try to at least pretend you can respect another author, mmkay?**


	2. Chapter 2, flashing back

In that moment, to Douglas, time had stilled to a crawl, he was glaring at the three men in front of him, his time spent with Charis flashed in front of his eyes.

* * *

Douglas walked down a street in California, wearing a faded pair of fatigues, combat boots, and a white tank top, a rifle on his back that bore resemblance to the rifle he carries with him today, but the makeshift stock was newer, and the barrel wasn't as rusty, 'damn…the entire world's gone to hell…"

As he continued walking he heard a scream, followed by a young woman running down the street towards him, he reached for his rifle, but as he kept looking she was unarmed, she screamed, "help me! There's a bunch of freaky things chasing me!"

Douglas raised an eyebrow and drew his rifle, seeing roughly 10 walkers running down the street, Douglas looked around as he aimed, noticing a steel lamppost he had an idea, 'time for a trickshot,' he looked to the girl, "cover your ears," as she did so, Douglas fired, the gunshot echoing through the city, the bullet whizzed through the air, ricocheting off the lamppost and piercing through the line of walkers, nailing roughly 5 of them with head shots, "damn…" Douglas looked around, he grabbed a shard of broken glass, hurling it into one of the walkers heads, as it hit, he came running up to the walkers with a 2x4, smashing through four of their heads before it broke, he looked around, he saw 10 bodies lying upon the ground, 'there we go…wait a minute,' he looked behind him, a walker rose up and went for his neck, the woman quickly used her backpack to knock him off his feet, to which Douglas coupled by smashing the walker's head with his boot splattering it across the concrete, "…thanks, you really saved my ass there."

Douglas turned to the young woman, who responded with, "I should be thanking you, you're amazing!"

Douglas chuckled and started walking away, "see ya later."

The woman frowned at this, brushing her hair away from her face, "wait! I wanna come with you!"

Douglas looked the girl over, she was dressed in a short black dress with short-shorts underneath, her hair was cut short and framed her face, which seemed to adorn an eternal smile, her body seemed to be in decent shape, especially given her speed in running from those walkers, "fine, but only if you don't weigh me down, I plan to survive this BS, however long it takes."

"I understand, my name is Charis, by the way"

Douglas looked over his shoulder, "Douglas."

* * *

When Douglas came to, he had already drawn his machete and was charging at the biggest of the three men, his reflexes kicked in, and he hurled the machete at the only one with a gun, his machete stuck into his hand as he went to defend, cutting off one of his fingers and sending him to the ground, Douglas then jumped up, kicking the other man in the chest as he gripped onto the biggest one's head, he punched him repeatedly then proceeded to seemingly attempt to rip off the man's lower jaw, forcing it open farther and farther, he looked to his right and the man he had thrown his machete into had recovered and was aiming up his pistol, 'crap, I cant dodge in time…dammit and I cant use this guy as a shield, they might hit Charis!"

Before Douglas could react, a gunshot rang out, when Douglas opened his eyes, the man with the pistol was dead, a bullet piercing his head, "oops, that wasn't medicine," Lalum laughed, her pistol smoking, Douglas nodded a thanks before smashing the man's head with a devastating elbow, caving it in, as the large man hit the ground, Douglas was caught in a full nelson by the last guy.

The man said, "you son of a bitch, you're dead!"

Charis regained her balance and looked on, shouting, "Douglas!" fear paralyzed her, 'dammit…I cant move!'

Douglas closed his eyes, trying to think of a way out of this, the man was now holding a knife to his throat when he heard something, "Douglas! Kick out your legs!"

Douglas didn't bother questioning and did as he was told, the man struggled as Douglas dropped down, "you little piece of sh-," the man was cut off when he looked up, an axe blade filled his vision, Jonah had hurled his tomahawk at the man, nearly cleaving the thug's head in half, he dropped Douglas and lurched forward, before Douglas pushed him off, standing back up.

"that's three points!" Jonah pumped his fist in the air, having hurled his tomahawk with perfect accuracy

* * *

After ensuring all of the thugs weren't going to turn to walkers, the group finished their introduction as the sun began to set, Douglas being the first, "anyways, this is Charis, she's been traveling with me since California."

Charis cheerfully chirped out, "Hello!"

Jonah looked at her with a scrutinizing gaze, "so…what does she do?"

Charis replied with, "I'm the pack mule!"

"huh?"

Douglas facepalmed, "she keeps track of all of our ammo, food, and first aid. In essence, she's the supply manager."

Charis nodded, Jonah replied, "seems like a lot for one girl to carry."

"she refused to let me carry it, saying, 'because you're the fighter, you need to be able to move more.'"

Charis nodded sheepishly, Jonah smiled, "well that changes now, we'll distribute the weight as evenly as we can, we're all a team here, right?"

Douglas nodded, Charis smiled happily, lalum gave a thumbs up, and both Jonah and Brant smirked, Douglas said, "then it's decided, I guess, DC is our destination now."

Charis gasped, "DC?! That's on the other side of the country!"

"it's still better than before, right?"

Charis sighed and nodded, "true…"

Jonah raised an eyebrow, "um…what?"

Charis began to rant, "We've been wandering aimlessly since Lancaster! Every town we went through had already been picked clean, no guns, no ammo, barely any food or water, I doubt we would've survived too long without his ingenuity."

Jonah was struck silent and only looked in confusion at Douglas, "don't look at me, I lost my compass, all I had was a roadmap to go off of so I couldn't do any hunting."

Jonah shouted in angst, "gah! Too much info, let's just get going already!"

* * *

As they walked down the street, they reached the city limits, the small talk had been minimal, that is, until they stopped to set up camp, Lalum had been working on something around the campfire, Jonah was sharpening his tomahawks, Charis was counting up all of the supplies, Brant was making dinner, but something seemed off, Douglas chose to stay up in a tall tree next to their camp his rifle constantly trained on the road, Lalum took notice of this and promptly asked Charis, "hey, what's with Douglas?"

Charis looked up from the backpacks, "oh…I actually don't know, usually I just sleep under the tree in that camouflage blanket he has wrapped around him."

Lalum sighed, "he's an odd one, then, what about you? You're really eager to help out Douglas, despite how distant he can be."

Charis chuckled, "he saved my life, I kinda feel indebted to him, besides, I've seen glimpses of the man he is under that cold exterior, he's really kind, what about you? What's your story?"

"oh, you actually want to learn about me?"

"yeah, you're the one who's probably gonna save our lives no matter and I'd like it to be a bit more than doctor-patient, y'know?"

"Alright, I guess…well, perhaps I should start with the beginning."

* * *

A small house, the sun shining brightly as a small child played in the front yard, Lalum spoke over this scene, "I grew up in a standard home, my mom was a stay-at-home mom and my dad was a doctor."

The scene fast forwards to a teenage girl sitting at the table with her dad, clothed in a brand new dress, she spoke up, "so, dad, are you going to teach me about being a doctor?"

The man replied happily, "you know what, sure, you're old enough to start learning," the man then led the girl into a library, he pulled a book down and began reading off the contents of the book.

Lalum continued, "my dad taught me everything he knew, but my mom always taught me how to be a lady, but I think my grandpa had the most effect, he taught me how to find herbs and natural cures."

The scene switches to a teenage girl walking through a dense forest, following behind an elderly man, "grandpa? What are we doing way out here?"

The old man laughed and climbed up a tree, catching the young girl off guard, "im going to teach you something my son learned a long time ago," he began scraping off the green of the tree after cutting it open, "natural remedies to anything that may ever ail you!"

The young girl was awestruck and excitedly followed, clambering awkwardly up the tree to follow along, Lalum then continued, "but…eventually this infection started and…me and my family kept trying to escape but…"

The scene changes again, a shadowy alley as four people run down the alley, a horde of walkers running after them, one of them, a woman trips, she screams, "keep going!"

One of the group stops, turning around and picking her up, a walker quickly lunged, biting the shoulder she shouts, revealing herself to be Lalum from the past, "Mom!" she pushes the walker off and starts running, carrying the woman

Charis cut in, "oh my god, your mom got bit?"

Lalum replied, "yes…we found a place to hide and both my dad and grandpa tried to fix her but…she succumbed, so I ran…I couldn't bear it."

Lalum was wandering, her body was beat up and thinner than before she left, as she came up to a small shop, she found a pair sleeping on the floor, she called out, "hello?"

One of them stirred and pinned her to the wall, "who the hell are you?! What do you want?!...Lalum?!"

Lalum heard her name and looked up, tears welled up in her eyes, "Jonah?!"

Jonah got up off her, "I thought for sure you were dead!"

"Same, im so happy to see a friendly face."

The other man stirred, "what's all the commotion about?"

Jonah replied, "Brant, this is my old friend Lalum!"

Brant yawned, "the girl with the doctor family?"

Jonah nodded and Lalum continued, "so what are you guys up to?"

Charis cut in, "and then they told you about their plan to go to dc, right?"

* * *

Lalum replied, finishing up one of her concoctions, "yep, and I asked if I could join them as a medic, and the rest is history."

Charis yawned, "wow, you've been through so much, though, that does make me wonder about the others…"

Lalum looked at the moon, "that's a concern for tomorrow I think, come on, we'll share a tent tonight."

Charis nodded and walked over to Douglas, "are you sure you don't want to sleep down here?"

Douglas exhaled, "no thank you, besides, there's not enough room in the makeshift tents for more than two people each."

Lalum replied with, "to be fair, technically my tent is slightly bigger than the other one…I retract my statement," as she finished her statement she climbed into her tent

Charis sighed, "good night, Douglas."

Douglas nodded, "night," he pulled his gun out again, watching the road

* * *

 **Well? How was that? Hope you all enjoyed learning about Lalum and her backstory, leave a review if you think anything could be done better.**


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